


The Consequence of His Actions

by artemis101



Series: Summer of Gotham [2]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Angst, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Miscarriage, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 10:48:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14872325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artemis101/pseuds/artemis101
Summary: After everything he had done, this was never part of the plan. The consequences of not stopping were worse.





	The Consequence of His Actions

**Author's Note:**

> This is very loosely based on the second prompt of Summer of Gotham, roommates. It actually ended up fitting into the first prompt as well. I restarted this three times before finally coming up with an idea that I wanted to use, so I hope you enjoy it.

It was a mistake, the entire decision to take on a roommate. Ed thought to help him would have been beneficial in the long run, instead, he sat covered in his own blood. An utter failure at everything. He couldn’t frame Jim and have it stick, unable to remain out of Arkham, kill his friend, become Riddler. Blood loss mixed with pain and shock caused Ed to pass out.

It had been so wonderful in the beginning, having Penguin around. A mentor who could teach him how to progress in his hobby and as they grew closer it changed, Oswald was a mentor but he was also a friend. Ed became accustomed to Oswald being with him. Spending time with someone else was actually enjoyable, especially when they tried to answer his riddles. There were moments though where Oswald drove Ed up the wall. Oswald called Ed at work for the most inane things like mustard, didn’t he know that they would be in serious trouble if someone saw those calls and connected that Ed was hiding him. Still, the good outweighed the bad and Ed was happier than he could ever remember being. Alas, all good things must come to an end, and the little world they built around them crashed down when Penguin saved Gordon. After that conversation focused on gathering people to catch Galavan and the weapons they would need. Ed watched as Oswald slipped out of the door and more than likely walked out of his life. The knowledge eclipsed him in a sadness that numbed everything else out. 

Seeing Oswald at the GCPD treated like little more than a common criminal was the first time Ed felt anything since Penguins departure. Fiery rage boiled under his skin as he made his way to the cabinets by the holding cell. He kept composed as they engaged in conversation but slow felt the anger morph into sadness once more. His heart broke upon learning that Oswald was just accepting punishment for the crime. Like Oswald was just giving up now that his mother had been avenged, like she was the only thing that mattered to him. Which left Ed alone again, just another person who he had misunderstood. Even with the feeling of abandonment curling at the edges of his nerves, he accepted the task of leaving lilies at Ms. Kapelputs grave. Edward pushed Oswald to the back of his mind, whilst he focused on the task at hand. He needed to get rid of Gordon before Kristen was discovered. Jim was already suspicious about the disappearance and if this task prevented Oswald from creeping into Ed’s mind then who would ever even know. It was during this time that Penguin arrived at Ed’s door. The pure joy mixed with a sour bitterness upon opening his door. Out of Arkham and he couldn’t even be bothered to think of Ed until he was covered in tar and feathers. Still he was relieved to see Oswald unharmed other than that but the relief soon turned to concern as Oswald continued speaking. To see such a mighty man be brought down so low, a king made to a beggar. It was unsettling and Ed needed him to stop. He wanted to grasp Oswald by the shoulders and shake him until he was himself once more, not this poor imitation. Wanted to press their lips together and, no. Not that. Oswald’s stay at Arkham must be effected Ed like the crazy was contagious and airborne. Ed needed him to leave before something irreversible happened. He quickly dismissed Oswald much to his own dismay and settled back into his routine of destroying Jim.

After Oswald’s visit everything continued to go downhill and eventually Edward was caught. Arkham was not where he belonged, surrounded by morons and lunatics. If this is what Oswald had to put up with then Ed understood why he snapped. One long day blended into another creating a haze over the passage of time, until suddenly, a new factor joined the equation. At first it was just gifts but then Oswald started to visit. Short trips at first but they steadily grew longer. Soon they were back to where they had been before Oswald left and Ed could no longer deny how he had started to feel. The bubbling nervousness that flowed through Ed when Oswald was with him but he pushed it down and kept up his facade of normalcy. He wasn’t going to lose his only friend because he was incapable of controlling himself. Having to be more careful about his actions did not decrease his joy when Oswald was around. The visits allowed Edward a sense of time again. He could tell when another week had passed him by. It was surreal when he was released from Arkham. A rushed decision with the proper steps ignored but all the pieces fell together when Oswald appeared at Arkham’s gates. He was swept up in the whirlwind that surrounded Oswald once more and it was beautiful. Their lives intertwined so fully that breathing became a troublesome task when he was once more alone. Back to where they had ended, roommates, friends, co-conspirators. It all lead to what was probably the biggest mistake of Ed’s life. They had celebrated winning Oswald’s election by getting a little too drunk, to sloppy. He woke up the next day next to Oswald, both fully naked. This discovery sent him scrambling to the bathroom, where his stomach rebelled against the night before. When he could finally move without risk of being sick he got dressed and fled to his room. With dread he prepared for the day ahead, putting together a story for the night before. Oswald took care of that himself though claiming an inability to remember anything after drinking directly from the scotch. Edward ground the disappointment under his foot and pretended he was instead relieved that nothing would change between them.

Isabella had been a welcome change. He could distract himself from Oswald and it hadn’t hurt that she looked almost exactly like Kristen. They spent more time together and he could drown his feelings for Oswald out. More than that he could have a second chance to be normal and live a life with the look-a-like of the girl of his dreams. The only problem was the constant nausea he felt in the mornings leading him to be sick more often than not. It had been so wonderful, he completed his job tasks with ease, maintained a friendship with Oswald while not revealing anything, and he was in a relationship with a competent woman. Then everything crumbled to dust around him. Isabella was dead, she fell asleep driving. Just for a brief investigation of his own to reveal she had been murdered. Some cruel fool had taken her from in an act of revenge and Ed knew just the ignoramus, Butch. Capturing Gilzean and Tabitha had been easy once he learned their routine. He was prepared to make them suffer horribly in retribution for Isabella, just to run into one massive problem. Butch hadn’t known how she had died, proving that he was not, in fact, her killer. The world spun around Ed, not only did he have no suspects, he had been wrong. How could things get any worse?

With the complete and utter betrayal of his best friend apparently. Being told that Oswald was in love with him had been hilarious. A dream come true much too late, laughable considering the circumstances he was facing when Barbara told him this. Painful once it was confirmed that she was right. His friend had taken his second chance away, his everything so Ed would return the favor and in doing so he would obliterate any feelings for Oswald that weren’t hate. It was a simple plan and achieving it had been disgustingly easy. Oswald fell for everything but with his predictably unpredictable nature, he still managed to leave Edward reeling. Oswald passed the test and he wasn’t supposed to. He should have revealed how much of an uncaring bastard he could be. Ed was thrown into turmoil hate mixing with hope and confusion. The necessity to punish Oswald for his transgressions against Ed. Killing Oswald should have satisfied him, should have left him strolling away head held high in victory, instead, he was left reeling from the hollow emptiness that took root in his chest. Barbara helped him try to fill it with pills and sometimes it worked. He would see Oswald, the downside being that his nausea got worse in the mornings when it had been fading away. Learning who he was without Penguin helped him come to grips with what he had done and he finally laid Oswald to rest, as well as his pills.

A simple conversation was all it took for Ed to grow concerned. A man talking with his friend about how he hadn’t even known he was a carrier. This lead to him becoming pregnant and luckily his boyfriend was ecstatic even though they had never discussed wanting kids. Ed had learned that he was a carrier at a young, it had always been a huge problem for his father. The shame that his son had turned out screwed up both mentally and physically regardless of what the doctors said about it being normal. He was punished for a body he didn’t chose and grew to hate for that very reason. Stealing two tests from the pharmacy had been childsplay, looking at the results was the difficult part. Maybe he was being paranoid after all it had been one night nearly a month ago, surely he would have known, it was his body after all. With a deep breath, he glanced at the results slumping to the floor when he saw the symbol. Positive, both positive, he was pregnant with Oswald's child. Horror crashed over him in waves, not only was he pregnant he was alone, he had murdered the babies father, he was a criminal wanted by the GCPD, he had many enemies, and massive plans for the city. The obvious solution would be to get rid of the baby but how was he supposed to do that and keep his status hidden. Feeling completely drained of energy Edward curled up on the bathroom floor pushing his decision off until later. The morning didn’t change how daunting it would be to make a decision. Keep a baby that he wasn’t even sure he could properly take care off or put himself at risk by seeing a doctor about it. He could bribe the doctor to keep it quiet but there was no guarantee that would work. That and a large part of him didn’t want to get an abortion he thought he had laid Oswald to rest but this was a piece of him that Edward still had, that he could still hold onto. A child was never part of the plan but he was terrified to realize how badly he wanted it. The baby wasn’t just a part of Oswald it was a part of him. He could do better than his parents, he already had in so many other areas so why not a parenting. With complete resolution Ed made his decision even with fear prickling his skin, he could still continue with his plans but he would have to be more careful.

Oswald reappearing was a problem Ed had not anticipated and seeing him again brought grief and anger back to life. He would have to kill Penguin all over again, if only to keep him from the baby. Ed refused to give Oswald the chance to take someone else from him, so he prepared to escape early only for Oswald to demolish his plans again. The noise brought the guards running and Ed was promptly shoved back into his cell by one guard while the other slammed the door shut on him and locked it. Ed had dropped his lockpick in the brief altercation and the guards scooped it up before leaving. It was with great reluctance on both parts that they agreed to escape together but before long they split apart once more on a temporary truce. Ed ignored the feeling of glee that had sprang up upon watching Oswald work in favor of plotting on how to get rid of him. Ed had to do it soon because he would be going into hiding outside of Gotham within three weeks. The plan was perfect, go to Oswald’s safe house and wait for him to arrive. Once he was there Ed would surprise him and grant him a quick death once Oswald said his name. At least it would have been perfect if an intense pain wouldn’t have spread through Ed’s abdomen. Wave after wave of pain hit Ed as he nearly collapsed. Leaning against the wall for support he felt something warm and wet gathering. He glimpsed down to see blood leaking through his pants. With a cry he stumbled to the bathroom and rapidly pulled them off. Another cramp hit him and falling to his knees, Ed knew what was happening. He had miscarried. Sorrow more acute than losing Oswald swept through him as he acknowledged what was happening. A keening wail ripped out of his mouth as he saw darkness at the edge of his vision. He hadn’t had long to get used to being pregnant but in such short time he was already attached. He loved the baby growing inside him, loved it so much but just like everyone else he failed it, he lost it. As Ed gave into the gentle embrace of darkness he barely noted the swinging motion the door made as it was flung open.

The first thing Ed noticed was the as he woke was the soft mattress under him, the second was that he was in pajamas instead of his suit. As he looked at the bedside he noticed Oswald slumped over asleep in a chair. Edward attempted to jerk up into a sitting position but was stopped by the sudden pain he felt. He let out a groan which startled Oswald awake. Everything came flooding back to Ed as he, when he focused on what caused the pain, suddenly leaving before Oswald could finish him off, wasn’t so important, in fact at this point Edward would welcome it. If death meant not having to face what he had lost then he would gladly take that option. Instead, he felt a straw be placed against his lips. He shot Oswald a confused look but drank. “Are you planning on poisoning me, because you realize it would have been smarter to do that while I was passed out.”

Oswald placed the glass on a stool in what looked like a room of a run-down greenhouse. “This is where Ivy patched me up after finding me. I thought you would appreciate the personal touch.”  
“Why didn’t you kill me, you had the perfect opportunity,s so why am I waking up here unless you have some extravagant torture planned out,” Ed didn’t have the strength to put any malice in his words it all just sounded monotone. “Edward, I had Ivy heal you after finding you passed out on the bathroom floor covered in blood just to find out you miscarried, I may be a monster but I’ not heartless. I must admit that I want to know who the other father is.”

“Like you don’t know.”

“Why would I, the only relationships I’ve ever known you to have were with women.”

He could use some convoluted riddle to tell Oswald but he didn’t care enough to try, he just wanted to get this interrogation over with so Oswald would kill him. “It’s yours.”  
The silence hung heavy over them as Oswald sat in horrified contemplation and Edward was struck by a strange numbness. “I thought that night was just a dream, there was no trace of you when I woke up and you acted as if everything was normal.”

“Ta-da it actually happened, now if you would hurry to the main event and kill me instead of using this event to feed your ego.”

“Kill you? Edward, it’s true that my plan was to destroy when I entered that safehouse but you can’t actually expect me to harm you after all of this.”  
“Of course I do!” Edward burst out screaming, the shock finally shattering into mourning,“I lied and never told you we slept together, I killed you and when you came back I never even told you about the baby, I lost the baby!” Sobs spilled out of him and his body began trembling as Ed curled in on himself. His voice was barely a whisper the next time he spoke. “I killed the baby, I knew what I was doing was dangerous and know it’s dead. It’s all my fault, I killed it. You should hate me, should kill me because if nothing else then I’ve earned that. And I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I destroyed everything. You, the baby, everything is ruined and it’s all my fault. ” Ed devolved into muffled I’m sorry’s as he cried.

Oswald slipped into the bed with Edward and pulled him into an embrace. Ed clung to him and pressed his face into the crook of Oswald's neck. “It’s okay, Ed. You haven’t ruined anything, the baby wasn’t your fault, it happens. And for everything else I forgive you. It’s going to be okay, and I’m going to be here for you.” 

Ed cried himself to sleep in Oswald’s arms. It was heartbreaking to see just how broken Ed was. Even with everything that had happened between them, Oswald was going to be there to support and help Ed and maybe just maybe everything really would be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope my story wasn't too horrible, but thank you for reading even if it was. Feedback is always appreciated and encouraged.


End file.
